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Summary
- Lavender is not named in the Hebrew or Greek Bible or in standard English and Spanish translations; only The Message paraphrase uses the word, in Song of Songs 4:14.
- The nard, or spikenard, of Song of Songs 1:12 and 4:13–14 and of Mark 14:3 and John 12:3 is identified by Bible dictionaries as Nardostachys jatamansi, a Himalayan plant.
- The Hebrew nerd came from India by way of Persia, and the perfume was costly: Judas valued Mary’s pound at 300 denarii (John 12:5).
- The claim that nard was lavender goes back to Victorian herbals, quoted in Maud Grieve’s A Modern Herbal (1931).
- Pliny the Elder says nard was adulterated with a “false nard,” which some modern scholars identify as a lavender.
- Several wild lavenders grow in Israel today, including Lavandula stoechas on the coastal plain.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version (Exodus 12:22; Psalm 51:7; Song of Songs 4:14; Mark 14:3, 8; John 12:3, 5; John 19:39; Matthew 20:2), with the King James Version and The Message (Song of Songs 4:14) for comparison. Spanish text: Reina-Valera 1960 and Nueva Versión Internacional (Mark 14:3; John 12:3). https://www.biblegateway.com/
- Francis Brown, S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, “nerd.” https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5373.htm
- Joseph Henry Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, “pistikos.” https://biblehub.com/greek/4101.htm
- M. G. Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897); William Smith, Smith’s Bible Dictionary; International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), “Spikenard.” https://biblehub.com/topical/s/spikenard.htm
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History, book 12, chapter 26, “Nard,” trans. John Bostock and H. T. Riley (1855), with the translators’ notes. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0137:book=12:chapter=26
- Maud Grieve, A Modern Herbal (1931), “Lavender,” quoting W. T. Fernie, Herbal Simples, and John Parkinson. https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/l/lavend13.html
- Online Etymology Dictionary, “nard” and “spikenard.” https://www.etymonline.com/word/nard
- “Spikenard” and “Nardostachys,” Wikipedia, on the plant, its range and Pliny’s kinds of nard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spikenard
- Flora of Israel Online, Lavandula coronopifolia and Lavandula pubescens. https://flora.org.il/en/plants/LAVCOR/ and https://flora.org.il/en/plants/LAVPUB/
- “אזוביון” (lavender), Hebrew Wikipedia, on the species growing wild in Israel. https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/אזוביון
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